great beginnings.

1. today my mom and i went to santa barbara to take flowers to my grandparents' graves. this is a pretty tree i saw in the cemetary.

2. paul and me... being our usual strange selves.

3. family photo!

4. the amazing sky on the way home from slo. the picture doesn't do it justice.

the nice list.

1. fall quarter is over!!!!
2. i had a great drive home with james involving in n out.
3. i got to see me grandparents.
4. my mom made us potsickers as a late night snack.
5. neille [one of my best friends from home] came over and we got to hang out with my family.
6. i can now be in the christmas spirit since i don't have to worry about school.
7. i see caitlin and bailey in three weeks!!!

nice.

the lull in the storm.

i just turned in a paper, and am now feeling much better! i think i am going to let myself take a break and watch gilmore girls with emily tonight. today was not as bad as i thought it would be, for sure only because God is totally getting me through it! so for now, this finals week, i will look on the bright side: i am sitting in my chair wrapped in two blankets, i ate free bean burrito from taco bell, i am listening to a christmas playlist on pandora, and i am having a library date with james tomorrow.

good luck on finals!

and for those who finished theirs [ahem c and b]: no fair.

ugh.

one week until winter break!! unfortunately, i am not in much of a christmasy spirit. before i am able to relax and enjoy the season, i have to:

study for my math final.
study for my linguistics final.
finish an english paper.
edit another english paper.
write a reflection paper for linguistics.
write another paper for linguistics.

i repeat: ugh.

rethinking christmas music.

tonight was an amazing one for several reasons.

for starters, it was $1 taco night at chino's [how did i not know this before??], so steph and i went with hannah to catch up. it was so good, and mostly included us gushing over the fact that she is getting married in june, ordered a wedding dress, and booked their honeymoon [cancun!!]. i feel so blessed to have such an amazing discipleship leader!

also, my night class was cancelled, enabling me to go to crusade for the third time this quarter. it was christmas crusade, which just made it that much better, and it was the last one of the quarter, which made me thankful to be able to see all my cru friends again before break. james led worship tonight, and it was amazing [yayy for Jesus!!]. we did some christmas songs, which i love. but tonight, it was a little different. every year, we sing christmas songs at church, and i always love them. why? because they are fun and it is only really socially acceptable to sing them for one month out of the year. i never really viewed them as worhip songs. sure, they are about Jesus, but i just lost sight of that in the excitement of the season. tonight, the christmas music was worship. i totally felt the Holy Spirit moving, and it was so good [biggest understatement ever]. God was definitely working tonight, and i am on such a high from it! i have so much to do and am feeling a lot of stress as finals start, but in that moment, worshipping Him, i just felt a huge peace wash over me, and i know that God has it under control.

tonight was also good because james' grandparents came up to see him, and i got to meet them. they were so cute and his grandma invited me to visit them over break. i can already tell we are going to be besties [much to james' dismay]. when he introduced me to them, i went to shake his grandma's hand, but she said, "i am going to hug you!" and gave me a huge amazing hug! i just loved it.

basically, the moral of the story [as most are] is that God is good.